1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the decoding of digital video images.
2. Art Background
Video images in digital format, referred to frequently as digital video (DV) is achieving greater usage as the use of computers for developing video images increases. The digital video data is stored or transmitted in a compressed encoded format, often referred to as "DV" format. The encoding process typically includes a discrete cosine transform (DCT) to translate the pixel data into DCT coefficients and a weighting function to weight the values (See e.g., "Specifications of Consumer-Used Digital VCRs Using 6.3 mm Magnetic Tape", HD Digital VCR Conference, (December 1994)). After the data is decoded, the image is sized for the viewing window, for example, by using a pixel decimation process wherein specified spatially spaced pixels are removed to reduce the number of pixels representative of the image. Thus, a number of pixels decoded are not subsequently displayed.
The decoding process is time consuming due to the number of operations required to decode the data. Thus it is desirable to minimize the time required to perform the decoding process while maintaining a high quality image.